Call hours

Specialties Operating Room

Published

I was wondering if anyone could tell me different hospital's policies on call.. Are most of you obligated to take it? Are there often certain nurses who want the extra money and volunteer to take the call? Overall.. on average how often can you expect to be called in per month (amount of hours or days.. whatever is easiest!)

Thank you!

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

It is typical and expected at MOST facilities to take call. The amount of call you have is dependent on staffing at the time. In my hospital, we can choose to do evening call (1700-2300), night call (2300-0700) or weekend call. Some specialty services such as eyes or CV have their nurses rotate call every night. While our eye nurses are expected to work during the day and then take call if it is their turn, our CV nurses are only on call when it is their day off, and they come in at 1700 if needed. The night and evening shift do not take call, of course. Some of our 12 hour staff members do not take call. All of our administrators take it.

There are some facilities such as ambulatory care surgical centers whose nurses are not expected to take call.

You can take someone else's call if you want, and if the OR is really short staffed, they will ask you to take extra call. I do believe that there is a limit on how much call you can take in a week (the number 60 comes to mind for some reason, but I am old and tired right now!).

Hope this sheds some light!

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

Oops-didn't answer the last part of your question...see! I AM tired! I typically take 60-70 hours of call in an 8 week time period. More if they need me to cover for someone who has called out sick, and more if someone has resigned and they need coverage.

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Specializes in O.R. Nursing - ENT, CTC, Vasc..

At the moment, we "regulars" are supposed to take call one weekend every four weeks (when I was hired they said it was once every 6 weeks, but at the moment that is not how it is). It is call for Saturday and Sunday (til Monday at 7am, I think). And for 2 holidays a year. During the week, we have a dedicated call team that is called in if we need them after 5pm - even if we're in the middle of a case that is going past 5, they come in and are supposed to relieve us...sometimes they go ahead and start another case that might be waiting, but that is a whole other issue.....).

The regular staff works Monday through Friday, and our shifts are either 8's, 10's or 12's (7-3, 7-5 or 7-7). I work in a hospital that is rural/suburban, a county away from a major metropolitan/urban area.

We are allowed to let someone else take call for us. Someone is almost always willing to take someone else's call - they ask if they can take yours! At least that is what I'm told and what I've seen. One nurse never takes call - she knows this other nurse will want it, and every month they're making the change on the schedule.

I haven't taken call alone yet - I am still in orientation. But in September I go out with a preceptor (who happens to be a nurse who likes to take a lot of call). I am kind of excited about making extra money, but sometimes the surgeons take advantage of the situation and start bringing in cases while they have a team, and you can end up working tons of hours over the weekend. Also, there is a nursing supevisor in the hospital who, if she knows some techs are in the building on call (but not working a case anymore), she'll make them do tech work on a med-surg floor if they're short-handed! If the tech says she doesn't want to, the supervisor will write her up. I don't know if it will happen again anytime soon, since it was reported to our director, but.... who wants to get stuck working 8 hours doing vitals and baths when you just got done working a case in the OR and maybe got your sleep interrupted??

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Our call is broken into 8 hour shifts- 1530-2330 or 2300-0700. We're supposed to sign up for eight hours per week, but not everyone does and some take more than that. We also have a combination of three shifts call or work every third weekend. Trading is allowed, and there are those who will offer cash to get others to take their weekend call. Getting someone to take yoru call during the week is obviously much easier.

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Interesting!

Does anyone know if it is the same or different for part time positions?

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At our hospital, full time we take about 24 hours of weekday call, and about 24 hours of weekend call. I don't like taking call, so if someone is willing to take it they can have it. Part time people usually take half of the full time people. Being called in depends on the surgeon. Some of them don't like to get up in the middle of the night for an appy, so they book it early at 5 am and have the call team come in before scheduled cases.

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Specializes in OR.

I take 24 hours of call each week.

I am part-time.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.

I have about 150 hours of open heart call a week. I am one of two rns taking this call. We swap weeks and cover vacation for each other. We just got one more person trained too..... I will take one weekend, 48 hours, of gi call every 5-6 weeks also.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.

Sorry, that should day 150 hours every two weeks. One week one. One week off.

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